- 16 sept 2010
UN flotilla inquiry submits first report to Ban
NEW YORK (Ma'an) -- The inquiry panel established by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to investigate the lethal Israeli attack on an aid ship bound for Gaza delivered its first report to the official, and said investigations were proceeding smoothly.
"[P]roceedings have been conducted in a positive and collegial manner," a statement from Ban said following his meeting with the panel, noting that the investigation was in full swing and would be able to "respond to the high international concern that has been expressed concerning the incident," his spokesman told the UN news on Wednesday.
The panel told Ban that it had obtained the internal reports from Israel and Turkey on the 31 May incident, which saw Israeli commandos kill 8 Turkish nationals and one dual US-Turkish citizen.
An Israeli military investigation into the incident found that its soldiers had operated properly, with professionalism, bravery and resourcefulness. The report also noted, however, that alternative courses of action could have existed had the process of preparation begun enough time in advance."
A civilian inquiry was later appointed under Israeli justice Ya'acov Tirkel, and charged with determining whether the raid abided with international law and used proportionate force. The inquiry was told it would not be permitted to question soldiers or examine the government's approval of the raid.
The 4-person UN investigation team, mandated on 2 June, days after the attack on the flotilla shocked the international community, but appointed only after Israel's military investigation failed to find fault with personnel, began its work in July.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=315336 7 jul 2011, 00:20 , Respect -
Maria 17 sept 2010
Report: Israeli, Turkish presidents to meet
Zaman newspaper says Gul to sit down with Peres during UN General Assembly session in New York next week in first meeting between such senior officials from both countries since Gaza flotilla affair.
Sign of improvement in Israel -Turkey relations? Turkish President Abdullah Gul will meet with President Shimon Peres next week during the United General Assembly session in New York, Turkish newspaper Zaman reported Friday.
This would be the first meeting between such senior Turkish and Israeli officials since May's deadly Navy raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla.
An official source, who asked to remain anonymous, told the paper President Gul had noted that "foreign ministers are allowed to meet with elements from enemy states even in the battlefield." He was addressing Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's meeting with Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer in Brussels after the flotilla incident in a bid to ease the tensions between the two countries.
Gul to demand apology
According to the report, during the meeting Gul is expected to stress Turkey's conditions for improving the relations and to clarify that there would be no normalization between the two countries without an Israeli apology for what Ankara has defined as "an attack" on the flotilla.
Gul is also expected to demand that Israel compensate the families of the nine Turkish civilians killed during the violent incident onboard the Marmara ship. He is likely to recommend that Jerusalem submit its apology through to the international commission of inquiry into the flotilla incident appointed by UN Secr Gen Ban Ki-moon. Representatives of the 192 member states are expected to attend the UN General Assembly meeting next week for discussions on various issues, including ways to fight world poverty. Gul is slated to head the Turkish delegation, although his doctors have warned that the trip may endanger his health.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3955663,00.html
20 sept 2010
Turkel committee may summon left-wing activists
Committee probing flotilla raid asks groups such as B'tselem to hand over info on situation in Gaza.
A committee investigating the IDF raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla has appealed to a number of left-wing and humanitarian organizations asking them to report on the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, according to a committee statement issued Monday.
The Turkel committee's coordinator, Attorney Hosea Gottlieb, sent letters to a number of organizations as part of its mandate to inspect the circumstances that brought about the naval blockade on the Strip.
The letters were sent to B'tselem, Physicians for Human Rights, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, and the Center for the Defense of the Individual.
The letters said the Turkel committee was considering summoning organization members to testify before it.
"We would be grateful if you would send us a short review of the information you have on the humanitarian situation in Gaza as soon as possible, so that the committee can consider the possibility of summoning you to testify," the letters say.
A week ago the committee asked the Turkish embassy in Israel for permission to summon Mehmet Tubal, the captain of the flotilla ship Mavi Marmara, to testify.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3957829,00.html
Turkel C'tee requests additional information from Eiland
The Turkel Committee decided that it needs further information from Maj.-Gen. (ret) Giora Eiland regarding the internal IDF probe of the raid of the Mavi Marmara that a committee chaired by Eiland carried out.
Eiland testified before the Turkel Committee last month. The committee sent him a letter on Sunday asking that his team of investigators meet with them in order to be briefed on those issues which the committee wishes to further pursue.
The meeting between Turkel Committee representatives and Eiland's team of investigators was scheduled to take place on Monday.
http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=188668 7 jul 2011, 00:22 , Respect -
Maria 22 sept 2010
Turkey : beware of Israeli snake
By Khalid Amayreh in Occupied East Jerusalem
It is crystal clear that Israel, the arrogant, fanatical and belligerent Jewish state is trying hard to undermine Turkey. Israel feels that its hegemony in the Middle East is being challenged by Turkish efforts to reassert the country's national interests by enhancing relations with Islamic neighbors and also by courageously opposing Israeli ethnic cleansing and other manifestly criminal policies against the Palestinians.
In recent days and weeks, Israel has been quite furious about the recent referendum in Turkey which granted the government additional powers to assert real democracy and prevent the recurrence of military coups.
The Turkish republic had witnessed three military coups against democratically-elected governments the last of which took place nearly 30 years ago, when the military introduced draconian constitutional amendments making the anti-Islam military establishment effectively above the people's will.
In the mid 1990s, the Turkish military forced the popular Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan to resign amid suspicions that the conservative premier was trying to re-Islamize Turkey .
The Israeli media has been quite vociferous about "losing Turkey" as if that country of 75 million people were supposed to be a banana republic subservient to Israel. Moreover, Israeli commentators, affiliated with fanatical Zionist circles, have urged the Israeli government to envisage ways and means to "overcome" the "growing Turkish threat"!!!
Israel, a predator state based on religio-ethnic racism, wouldn't settle for having normal, dignified relations with Turkey, e.g. relations based on parity and mutual respect. Israel always seeks dominance. Needless to say, the rationale for this psychotic way of thinking originates in the so-called "chosen people's complex."
Thus, Israel strongly believes that any state wishing to have friendly relations with the Jewish state must succumb to Jewish supremacy and support Israel's criminal policies toward helpless Palestinians struggling despite all odds to preserve their national existence in the face of the unrelenting Zionist onslaught.
Fortunately, Turkey under the premiership of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is refusing to give in to Zionist hegemony and insolence which manifested itself first in the Nazi-like blitz against the Gaza Strip nearly two years ago and second in the murderous attack on an unarmed Turkish passenger ship sailing in international waters on 31 May.
Indeed, instead of apologizing to Turkey for the murderous piracy in which 9 Turkish citizens were murdered by Israeli soldiers, the Israeli propaganda machine resorted to sheer lies in a desperate effort to evade the truth.
But the people of Turkey and their government are neither gullible nor ignorant, and wouldn't buy more lies from Israel.
President Abdullah Gul was correct when he remarked that the provocative deadly assault on Mavi Marmara could have been a casus belli for war had it taken place in the past. Moreover, his refusal to meet with Israeli President Shimon Peres in New York earlier this week was a courageous step that is highly consistent with Turkish pride and national dignity.
In the final analysis, how could the President of Turkey shake hands with the President of a state on whose hands the spilt innocent blood of Turkish citizens has yet to dry.
Besides, this certified war criminal, Peres, deserves no courtesy. He not only failed to apologize for the innocent Turks , murdered so arrogantly and so nonchalantly by Israel, as any normal state facing a similar situation would, but also had the audacity to tell the Turks to lick their wounds and return to "business as usual" with Israel!
We, who live in this part of the world, know Peres too well. He is the hero of the Qana massacre in 1996, when he, as Prime Minister following the assassination of Isaac Rabin at the hands of a Jewish extremist, ordered the Israeli army to bomb Lebanese refugees who had sought refuge at the UN peace keepers' headquarter at the village of Qana in southern Lebanon. The bombing transformed the premises into a huge slaughterhouse as more than a hundred men, women and children were massacred and many others maimed and mutilated.
Despite the passage of more than 14 years since the heinous crime took place, the irredeemable liar has not had the moral courage to say "I am sorry." This is the very man who doesn't stop lecturing the world about the virtues of peace and vices of extremism. His limitless hypocrisy and sanctimony may pass undetected by many in Europe and North America. However, a growing number of Muslims and non-Muslims alike, including Turks, are not willing to betray their senses and give the evil criminal liar and the state he represents the benefit of the doubt, that is if there is ever a doubt about his and Israel 's evil character.
Now, with Turkey refusing to be tricked and bamboozled by Israeli bulling tactics, the Zionist regime will most likely embark on acts of subversion against Turkey aimed at undermining the popular government of Prime Minister Erdogan.
There is absolutely no doubt that the occurrence of another military coup in Turkey tops Israel's New Hebrew Year's wish list.
This is something that the Turkish government must never take lightly. Israel believes that it can count on the tentacles of the Masonic Octopus to incite against the military establishment against the AKB government.
Hence, thwarting Israeli efforts to transform Turkey into a satellite state orbiting Israel must be a top priority for the Turkish government.
In short, beware of the Zionist snake.
http://bit.ly/dxGYdm
UN experts: Flotilla raid broke international law
UN Gaza aid probe finds 'clear evidence' against Israel
A UN probe said Wednesday there was "clear evidence to support prosecutions" against Israel for "wilful killing" and torture committed when its troops stormed a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May.
In a scathing report, it also threw out Israel's argument that activists on the aid ship were violent thereby justifying the decision by Israeli soldiers to open fire, adding that some were the victim of actions "consistent with...summary execution."
The inquiry ordered by the UN Human Rights Council said Israel's military used "unnecessary violence" in the incident and committed acts that "constituted grave violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law."
There was "clear evidence to support prosecutions" of crimes against international humanitarian law including "wilful killing; torture or inhuman treatment; and wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health," it said.
Israel's foreign ministry spokesman could not be reached on Wednesday night, the start of the Sukkot Jewish holiday.
But from the outset, Israeli officials have rejected the inquiry mandated by the Human Rights Council as biased but is backing another, separate probe set up by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on the incident which left nine Turkish activists dead.
Israel has insisted that it acted in line with international law, arguing that it had the right to retaliate against ships attempting to breach its blockade of the impoverished Gaza Strip.
However, the probe said Israel's enforcement of a blockade was itself unlawful, since Gaza was suffering from a humanitarian crisis on the day of the deadly raid.
"For this reason alone, the blockade is unlawful and cannot be sustained in law. This is so regardless of the grounds on which it is sought to justify the legality of the blockade," said the report of the inquiry, which is due to be presented to the rights council on Monday.
Rejecting Israel's justification of its soldiers' decision to open fire, it said it found that even those who did not attempt to stop Israeli soldiers from boarding the aid ships "received injuries, including fatal injuries."
"It is apparent that no effort was made to minimise injuries at certain states of the operation and that the use of live fire was done in an extensive and arbitrary manner," said the inquiry.
"The circumstances of the killing of at least six of the passengers were in a manner consistent with an extra-legal, arbitrary and summary execution," it added.
"The conduct of the Israeli military and other personnel towards the flotilla passengers was not only disproportionate to the occasion but demonstrated levels of totally unnecessary and incredible violence," said the probe.
The fact-finding mission, chaired by Karl Hudson-Phillips, former judge of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, had travelled to Turkey, Jordan and Britain to interview witnesses and officials for the probe.
Desmond de Silva, former chief prosecutor of the Sierra Leone War Crimes Tribunal, and Shanthi Dairiam, as Malaysian human rights expert, are the other members of the panel.
http://yhoo.it/9G9cMf
UN experts: Flotilla raid broke international law
UN Human Rights Council's fact-finding mission says Israel's military response to Gaza aid sail was 'disproportionate', 'betrayed an unacceptable level of brutality'
A group of UN-appointed experts says Israeli forces violated international law "including international humanitarian and human rights law" during and after their raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May.
The UN Human Rights Council's fact-finding mission says Israel's naval blockade of the Palestinian territory was "unlawful" because a humanitarian crisis there at the time.
The three-member panel says Israel's military response to the flotilla was "disproportionate" and "betrayed an unacceptable level of brutality."
Eight Turkish activists and one Turkish-American were killed in the raid.
Israel says the soldiers acted in self-defense. The country's mission to the UN in Geneva couldn't immediately be reached for comment late Wednesday
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3958723,00.html
Israel's Gaza flotilla probe nears end
From left: Horev, Turkel and Rosenne
Investigation committee chairman Jacob Turkel says the commission's work is nearing completion, thus it is undecided whether to replace member Shabtai Rosenne, who passed away on Tuesday.
The state-appointed inquiry into the lethal storming of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May is almost complete, chief investigator Jacob Turkel said on Wednesday after one of his fellow panel members died.
Set up in hope of stemming international fury at Israeli marines' killing of nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists aboard one of the ships, the Turkel Commission is also providing material for a separate inquest at the United Nations.
One of the five Israeli investigators, 93-year-old former ambassador Shabtai Rosenne, died of heart failure overnight but a spokesman said the commission's work would stay on schedule.
Interviewed on Army Radio, the panel chairman, retired Supreme Court justice Jacob Turkel, said he was undecided on whether to replace Rosenne.
Asked if the inquest was nearing completion, he said: "Yes, certainly. We have by now gathered most of the testimony ... If there will be more witnesses testifying, they will be witnesses of lesser importance, and not a large number of them remain."
Among those asked to appear before the commission is Mahmut Tural, captain of the converted cruise ship Mavi Marmara, where the activists were killed after the Israelis boarded it. Turkel said a response from Tural had yet to be received.
The Turkel Commission includes two foreign observers but has been criticized by the Turkish government for its limited scope.
The Turks have demanded an apology and compensation from Israel, which has refused, saying its navy acted in self-defense.
http://bit.ly/btOBVE
Turkel C'tee's Prof. Shabtai Rosen, 93, dies in J'lem home
Prof. Shabtai Rosen, 93, died of heart failure on Tuesday night at his home in Jerusalem. Rosen was serving as a member of the Turkel Committee, commissioned with investigating the events surrounding the May 31 Israeli raid of a Gaza -bound flotilla of ships in which nine pro-Palestinian Turkish activists were killed by IDF naval commandos.
Rosen was an accomplished professor of international law at Bar Ilan University and recipient of the Israel Prize for jurisprudence.
Rosen was scheduled to be laid to rest on Wednesday in Jerusalem.
http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=188882
Turkey welcomes UN flotilla report's findings
Turkey: We expect formal apology, compensation from Israel
Turkish president addressed UN general assembly and praised UN report on Gaza flotilla raid, which says Israeli forces violated international law.
Turkey is still waiting for an apology from Israel over the Gaza flotilla raid, Turkish president Abdullah Gul told the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday.
The UN Human Rights Commission released a report on the incident on Wednesday. The report, compiled by three United Nations appointed human rights experts, said that Israeli forces violated international law when they raided a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, killing nine activists, earlier this year.
Gul said that he still expects Israel to pay monetary compensation to the families of those killed in the raid, which he said was a scathing infraction of international law.
"In the light of international law, Turkey's expectation is a formal apology and compensation for the aggrieved families of the victims and the injured people," Gul said.
The UN Human Rights Council's fact-finding mission concluded that Israel's naval blockade of the Palestinian territory was unlawful because of the humanitarian crisis there, and described the military raid on the flotilla as brutal and disproportionate.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry responded to the report late Wednesday by saying the Human Rights Council had a biased, politicized and extremist approach. They have since said that will "study" the report.
Gul lauded United States President Barack Obama's efforts to encourage the Israelis and Palestinians to resume direct peace talks.
However, he cautioned: "It would be very difficult to make progress towards permanent peace unless we put an end to the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza."
Earlier on Wednesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu praised Gaza flotilla report, telling Anatolia news agency that it report was fair, impartial and used strong evidence.
"We expected the council to release a strong report based on strong evidence, and in this sense the report met our expectations," said Davutoglu. "We hope that Israel will learn to use language of international law and act in line with it."
The Human Rights Council's report was compiled by former UN war crimes prosecutor Desmond de Silva, Trinidadian judge Karl T. Hudson-Phillips and Malaysian women's rights advocate Mary Shanthi Dairiam.
The Human Rights Council, based in Geneva, was re-established in 2006 by then UN Security General, Kofi Annan, following accusations that its predecessor, the UN Commission on Human Rights, openly and systematically discriminated against Israel.
But the new body has also passed several resolutions condemning Israel over the past few years, especially for its actions in the Palestinian territories, and is often of accused of unfair bias against Israel.
http://bit.ly/aNP7bg
Turkish president demands apology for flotilla at UN
Gul calls 'Marmara' raid an "unacceptable act in international law,"; calls on Israel to put an end to the "humanitarian tragedy in Gaza.
NEW YORK Addressing the General Assembly at the United Nations on Thursday, Turkish President Abdullah Gul referenced the May 31 Gaza flotilla incident and demanded both a formal apology from Israel as well as compensation for the victims.
Calling the deaths on the Mavi Marmara an unacceptable act in international law, Gul said Turkey is owed a formal apology and compensation for the aggrieved families of the victims and the injured people by Israel.
Gul referenced the flotilla incident in part of his remarks focusing on the political component of the General Assembly's agenda, noting that there is no shortage of regional issues to be discussed.
Peace in the Middle East holds the key to a peaceful and stable future in the world, Gul said, addressing the body in English. Unfortunately, the absence of peace there has had serious and adverse consequences for the rest of the world.
It would be difficult to make progress toward permanent peace, Gul said, unless we put an end to the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza.
Gul attached significance to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon's Panel of Inquiry into the May 31 flotilla incident, as well as the fact finding mission of the Geneva-based Human Rights Council.
Gul said he is pleased with the Human Rights Council report, which he said offered a solid legal framework for establishing the facts about the incident. Many NGOs, including UN Watch and NGO Monitor, have deemed the work of the Human Rights Council panel irreparably biased against Israel.
Referencing Iran very briefly, Gul said there is no alternative to diplomacy in ensuring Iran's conformity to International Atomic Energy Agency norms.
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=189039
Turkey welcomes UN flotilla report's findings
Ankara's foreign minister says UN Human Rights Council report probing tragic events of Gaza-bound aid sail 'extremely fair, based on solid evidence'.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Thursday praised the impartiality of the UN Human Rights Council's investigation into the raid of the Gaza-bound Maramra in late May, saying that the findings met Turkey's expectations.
In a harsh 56-page report, compiled by former UN war crimes prosecutor Desmond de Silva, Trinidadian judge Karl T. Hudson-Phillips and Malaysian women's rights advocate Mary Shanthi Dairiam, the UNHCR concluded that Israel exceeded its authority and violated International Law by raiding the flotilla.
The report further stated that Israel's military reaction of the sail was "disproportionate and brutal," and that the soldiers boarding the Marmara "demonstrated levels of totally unnecessary and incredible violence."
The panel concluded that Israel's version of the events was inconsistent and was to be rejected, adding that the findings supported "prosecution against Israel for willful killing and torture."
* To read the full report click here http://bit.ly/d1pRBg
The Council's report, Davutoglu told Anatolia news agency, "Is extremely fair and based on solid evidence. We appreciate that. (The report) meets our expectations. I hope the Israeli side will now (...) act within international law, he said.
Israel has rejected the report, calling it "biased and partisan." Diplomatic relations between Israel and Turkey once close strategic allies have been strained by the events. Ankara has called on Jerusalem to apologize, pay compensation and terminate the blockade of Gaza as a precondition for normalizing relations.
"Our goal is not to cause a political crisis, but to ensure that everyone respects international law and believes that no country is above the law. We will never allow that to happen in the Eastern Mediterranean" said Davutoglu.
Wednesday saw Knesset Member Hanin Zaobi (Balad), who was on the Turkish ship during the raid, say she too "welcomes the professionalism and decency of the UN committee in its efforts to reveal the truth."
The MK called on the Israeli government to "face these conclusions,' adding that "all the typical slander attempts will not make Israel innocent."
Meanwhile, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said Wednesday that the report underscored the fact that "Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories violates human rights not only against Palestinian people but against innocent people who came to show their sympathy."
"Now it's required to be a mechanism in order to translate this report into action and to bring the occupation commanders to trial for the crimes they committed," Barhoum said.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3958812,00.html 7 jul 2011, 00:30 , Respect -
Maria Gaza flotilla attack: UN report condemns Israeli 'brutality'
UN Human Rights Council accuses Israel of a 'disproportionate' response to Gaza blockade-breakers, nine of whom died.
A UN-appointed panel said today that Israeli forces violated international law, "including international humanitarian and human rights law", during and after their lethal attack on a flotilla of ships attempting to break the blockade of Gaza in May.
The UN Human Rights Council's fact-finding mission judged Israel's naval blockade of the Palestinian territory to be "unlawful" because there was a humanitarian crisis in Gaza at the time.
The panel's report, published today, described Israel's military response to the flotilla as "disproportionate" and said it "betrayed an unacceptable level of brutality".
Eight Turkish activists and one Turkish-American were killed in the raid, which prompted international criticism of both the attack and Israel's policy of blockading the Gaza Strip. Israel has since eased its embargo, although still refuses to allow full imports and exports and the free movement of people.
Israel says the soldiers acted in self-defence. But the mission criticised the Israeli government for failing to co-operate with its inquiry. "Regrettably to date, no information has been given to the mission by or on behalf of the government of Israel," it said.
The panel was led by Karl Hudson-Phillips, a retired judge of the international criminal court and former attorney general of Trinidad and Tobago.
The report said: "The conduct of the Israeli military and other personnel towards the flotilla passengers was not only disproportionate to the occasion but demonstrated levels of totally unnecessary and incredible violence. It betrayed an unacceptable level of brutality. Such conduct cannot be justified or condoned on security or any other grounds. It constituted grave violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law."
The panel concluded that there was "clear evidence" of wilful killing, torture or inhuman treatment and wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health %u2013 all crimes under the Geneva Convention.
The panel expressed the hope that there would be "swift action" by the Israeli government to help victims achieve effective remedies. "The mission sincerely hopes that no impediment will be put in the way of those who suffered loss as a result of the unlawful actions of the Israeli military to be compensated adequately and promptly," it said. It described the blockade of Gaza as "totally intolerable and unacceptable in the 21st century".
The Israeli government has fiercely resisted demands for an independent international inquiry into the flotilla attacks, establishing three internal investigations to avert pressure from the UN, Europe and Turkey.
http://bit.ly/fSDMPq
MK Zoabi on UN report: Put criminals on trial
Knesset Member Hanin Zaobi (Balad) welcomed a report issued by a UN Human Rights Council mission, which ruled that Israeli forces violated international law and showed "incredible violence" when they raided a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May.
"We must not settle for a condemnation, but work to put the criminals, those who gave the orders and those who executed them on trial."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3958744,00.html
UN experts: Flotilla raid 'incredibly violent'
Human Rights Council mission says Israel's military response to Gaza aid sail was 'disproportionate and brutal', violated international law. Panel finds 'clear evidence to support prosecution' against Israel for 'willful killing' and torture.
A report by three UN-appointed human rights experts Wednesday said that Israeli forces violated international law and showed "incredible violence" when they raided a Gaza-bound aid flotilla killing nine activists earlier this year.
The UN Human Rights Council's fact-finding mission concluded that Israel's naval blockade of the Palestinian territory was unlawful because of the humanitarian crisis there, and described the military raid on the flotilla as brutal and disproportionate.
According to the UN probe, there is "clear evidence to support prosecutions" against Israel for "willful killing" and torture committed when its troops stormed the aid flotilla in May.
"There is clear evidence to support prosecutions of the following crimes within the terms of article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention: Willful killing; torture or inhuman treatment; willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health," said the inquiry.
The Fourth Geneva Convention is an international treaty governing the protection of civilians in times of war.
"The conduct of the Israeli military and other personnel towards the flotilla passengers was not only disproportionate to the occasion but demonstrated levels of totally unnecessary and incredible violence," said the probe.
Israel: Report biased, politicized
The Israeli Foreign Ministry responded late Wednesday by saying the Human Rights Council had a "biased, politicized and extremist approach."
Israel has maintained that its soldiers acted in self-defense when they shot and killed eight Turkish activists and one Turkish-American aboard the Mavi Marmara on May 31.
"The Human Rights Council blamed Israel prior to the investigation and it is no surprise that they condemn after," said Andy David, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, referring to the 47-member body's resolution in early June condemning the raid.
Israel refused to cooperate with the panel, preferring instead to work with a separate UN group under New Zealand's former Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer and Colombia's former President Alvaro Uribe that is also examining the incident but has yet to publish its findings.
"Israel is a democratic and law abiding country that carefully observes international law and, when need be, knows how to investigate itself," the Foreign Ministry statement said. "That is how Israel has always acted, and that is the way in which investigations were conducted following Operation Cast Lead, launched to protect the inhabitants of southern Israel from rockets and terror attacks carried out by Hamas from Gaza."
Fawzi Barhoum, spokesman for the Islamic militant group Hamas that controls Gaza, said the report emphasized that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories violates human rights "not only against Palestinian people but against innocent people who came to show their sympathy."
"Now it's required to be a mechanism in order to translate this report into action and to bring the occupation commanders to trial for the crimes they committed," Barhoum said.
The Human Rights Council's report was compiled by former UN war crimes prosecutor Desmond de Silva, Trinidadian judge Karl T. Hudson-Phillips and Malaysian women's rights advocate Mary Shanthi Dairiam. It is scheduled to be presented to the council on Monday.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3958723,00.html
UN Gaza aid probe finds 'clear evidence' against Israel
Israel launches PR war on UN report
Israeli officials embark on all-out effort in bid to undermine credibility of damning flotilla raid report.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has ordered the establishment of a "command post" in New York in an effort to counter a damning United Nations report on Israel's flotilla raid which left nine people dead.
The report, drafted by the UN Human Rights Council, charged that IDF soldiers executed Turkish activists on board a Gaza-bound vessel by firing at them from close range.
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, who is currently in New York, set up the command post along with Ambassador to the UN Meron Reuben and Consul General Ido Aharoni in order to coordinate Israel's diplomatic and PR activity in response to the report.
As of Thursday morning, Israeli officials are attempting to initiate a coordinated response by all Jewish organizations to condemn the UN report. All Israeli emissaries in North America had been briefed on their next moves vis-à-vis the media and foreign diplomats.
Ayalon: Report a despicable lie
Meanwhile, senior Israeli officials have been granting interviews to US media outlets throughout the day.
Elsewhere, Israel's delegation at the UN is formulating the Jewish state's diplomatic response, to be submitted to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as well as to major states whose heads are currently in New York for the annual UN General Assembly
Israel's embassy in Washington had been instructed to convey the Jewish state's messages to the US Administration, Congress, and to local Jewish organizations, in a bid to undermine the report's credibility.
In his US media appearances Thursday, Deputy Minister Ayalon said the UN report was a despicable lie from start to finish only aimed at harming Israel. He said the report would end up undermining its own authors as well as the Human Rights Council, arguing that the UN body is making itself irrelevant and requires dramatic reform.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3958890,00.html
Israel rejected the report as "biased" and "one-sided."
(1:34) UN Report On Israel Flotilla Killings - BBC News 22 Sept 2010
UN report: http://bit.ly/d1pRBg
In a scathing report, it also threw out Israel's argument that the aid activists were violent, thereby justifying the decision by Israeli soldiers to open fire.
The incident left nine Turkish nationals dead and drew global condemnation.
Saying some were victims of actions "consistent with... summary execution," the inquiry ordered by the UN Human Rights Council said Israel's military used "unnecessary violence."
These "constituted grave violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law," it said, adding there was "clear evidence to support prosecutions" of crimes including "willful killing; torture or inhuman treatment; and willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health."
Israel rejected the report as "biased" and "one-sided."
"As expected of a democratic country, Israel has been -- and still is -- investigating the events of the Gaza flotilla," said a statement released by the Israeli foreign ministry late Wednesday night.
It added that its own committee of inquiry, which includes two international observers, was still at work and that Israel had also agreed to take part in an inquiry set up by the UN Secretary General.
"The report... is as biased and as one sided as the body that has produced it," the statement said.
"Israel... is of the opinion that the flotilla incident is amply and sufficiently investigated as it is. All additional dealing with this issue is superfluous and unproductive."
Israel has insisted that it acted in line with international law, arguing that it had the right to retaliate against ships attempting to breach its blockade of the impoverished Gaza Strip.
However, the probe said Israel's enforcement of a blockade was itself unlawful, since Gaza was suffering from a humanitarian crisis on the day of the deadly raid.
"For this reason alone, the blockade is unlawful and cannot be sustained in law. This is so regardless of the grounds on which it is sought to justify the legality of the blockade," said the report, which will be presented to the rights council on Monday.
It said even those activists who did not try to stop Israeli soldiers from boarding the aid ships "received injuries, including fatal injuries."
"It is apparent that no effort was made to minimise injuries at certain states of the operation and that the use of live fire was done in an extensive and arbitrary manner," said the inquiry.
"The circumstances of the killing of at least six of the passengers were in a manner consistent with an extra-legal, arbitrary and summary execution," it added.
"The conduct of the Israeli military and other personnel towards the flotilla passengers was not only disproportionate to the occasion but demonstrated levels of totally unnecessary and incredible violence," said the probe.
The fact-finding mission, chaired by Karl Hudson-Phillips, former judge of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, had travelled to Turkey, Jordan and Britain to interview witnesses and officials for the probe.
Desmond de Silva, former chief prosecutor of the Sierra Leone War Crimes Tribunal, and Shanthi Dairiam, as Malaysian human rights expert, are the other members of the panel.
http://yhoo.it/a7x07r
23 sept 2010
Barhoum: UN report enough evidence on IOA crimes against humanity
GAZA, (PIC)-- Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, has affirmed that the UN human rights council's report on the Israeli aggression on the Freedom Flotilla and Gaza siege is another proof incriminating the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) of state terrorism, violation of human rights, and committing crimes against humanity.
Barhoum in a statement on Thursday said that the report puts the world community before a new test; either to apply international justice and put on trial IOA leaders as war criminals or continue to adopt a double-standard policy when it comes to the IOA.
He stressed that the report necessitated swift, practical measures to put IOA leaders and government on trial at the international criminal court for their crimes, and to adopt strict measures against the IOA to deter its "aggression and terrorism".
http://bit.ly/bPgdZo
FINALLY ..... WE MIGHT SEE JUSTICE ON FLOTILLA PIRACY
UN report unedited just out, Israel guilty of breaking international law on flotilla and blockade is illegal due to humanitarian crisis in gaza.
BUT.... don't hold your breath, Israel has ignored EVERY UN Resolution condemning their crimes.... why would this one be treated differently?
international fact-finding mission to investigate
violations of international law, including international humanitarian and human rights law, resulting from the Israeli attacks on the flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian assistance
The entire report can be seen HERE in PDF form...http://bit.ly/d1pRBg
Bottom line is......
277. A distinction is made between activities taken to alleviate crises and action to address the causes creating the crisis. The latter action is characterized as political action and therefore inappropriate for groups that wish to be classified as humanitarian. This point is made because of the evidence that while some of the passengers were solely interested in delivering supplies to the people in Gaza, for others the main purpose was raising awareness of the blockade with a view to its removal, as the only way to solve the crisis.
An examination should be made to clearly define humanitarianism as distinct from humanitarian action so that there can be an agreed form of intervention and jurisdiction when humanitarian crises occur.
278. The Mission sincerely hopes that no impediment will be put in the way of those who suffered loss as a result of the unlawful actions of the Israeli military to be compensated adequately and promptly. It is hoped that there will be swift action by the Government of Israel. This will go a long way to reversing the regrettable reputation which that country has for impunity and intransigence in international affairs. It will also assist those who genuinely sympathise with their situation to support them without being stigmatised.
PM slams 'distorted' flotilla report Whole world saw footage,
Prime Minister's Office issues harsh response to UN committee report, claims was drafted by 'body obsessed with persecuting Israel'
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed Thursday the UN Human Rights Commission's report
on Israel's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish vessel in May.
The Prime Minister's Office issued a statement Thursday evening, blasting the "tendentious, distorted report" and charging it was draft by an organization "most of whose decisions are based on an obsessive persecution of Israel."
"The whole world saw the video footage of the Navy commandoes who descended to the Marmara deck, and into a violent and premeditated ambush of terror-supporting bullies who tried to kill them with clubs and knives," the statement read. "This not prevent the committee from ignoring the facts and drawing false, predetermined conclusions."
Israel expressed similar sentiments over the Goldstone Report on Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, claining that the probe team was appointed by the UN committee in Geneva, known for its hostile position toward Israel.
The latest report, which was published Wednesday and will be presented to the Human Rights Committee on Monday, cited evidence that Turkish activists were executed during the Gaza flotilla. According to the report, Israel blatantly violated international law during the raid on the Turkish ship.
Earlier, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman ordered the establishment of a "command post" in New York, in an effort to coordinate Israeli diplomatic and public relations response to the daming report.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3959025,00.html
MK Zoabi lauds UN panel report accusing IDF of criminality
Balad politician demands soldiers' indictment after UN experts conclude Gaza naval blockade unlawful due to humanitarian crisis; Foreign Ministry slams rights council's "biased, politicized, extremist approach."
MK Haneen Zoabi (Balad) lauded the findings of a panel of UN human rights experts on Wednesday, which found that Israel had violated international law in enforcing a blockade on Gaza and in the conduct of IDF soldiers during the boarding of the Mavi Marmara.
Zoabi was keen to praise the "professionalism and fairness in [the Human Rights Council's fact finding mission's] efforts to reveal the truth."
She also called on Israel to move forward with the findings of the panel and to indict the Israeli citizens responsible for the Mavi Marmara boarding operation.
"We must not settle for declarations of condemnation but we must work to put the criminals to justice, those who ordered and those who carried out the orders," Zoabi said.
She added, "All attempts of character assassination will not make Israel appear innocent."
Zoabi was one of the flotilla participants aboard the Mavi Marmara when it was boarded by IDF naval commandos.
Earlier on Wednesday, three UN-appointed human rights experts announced there findings that Israeli forces violated international law when they raided a Gaza-bound aid flotilla killing nine activists earlier this year.
The UN Human Rights Council's fact-finding mission concluded that the naval blockade of Gaza was unlawful because of the humanitarian crisis there, and described the military raid on the flotilla as brutal and disproportionate.
The 56-page document lists a series of alleged crimes committed by Israeli forces during and after the raid, including willful killing and torture, and claims there is "clear evidence to support prosecutions."
"A series of violations of international law, including international humanitarian and human rights law, were committed by the Israeli forces during the interception of the flotilla and during the detention of passengers in Israel prior to deportation," the experts found.
Examining the circumstances of the raid, the panel concluded that a humanitarian crisis existed in Gaza on the day of the incident in Gaza and "for this reason alone the blockade is unlawful and cannot be sustained in law."
"The conduct of the Israeli military and other personnel toward the flotilla passengers was not only disproportionate to the occasion but demonstrated levels of totally unnecessary and incredible violence. It betrayed an unacceptable level of brutality," the report said.
Foreign Ministry blasts report as biased
The Foreign Ministry responded late Wednesday by saying the Human Rights Council had a "biased, politicized and extremist approach."
"The Human Rights Council blamed Israel prior to the investigation and it is no surprise that they condemn after," said Andy David, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, referring to the 47-member body's resolution in early June condemning the raid.
Israel refused to cooperate with the panel, preferring instead to work with a separate UN group under New Zealand's former Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer and Colombia's former President Alvaro Uribe that is also examining the incident but has yet to publish its findings.
"Israel is a democratic and law abiding country that carefully observes international law and, when need be, knows how to investigate itself," the Foreign Ministry statement said. "That is how Israel has always acted, and that is the way in which investigations were conducted following Operation Cast Lead, launched to protect the inhabitants of southern Israel from rockets and terror attacks carried out by Hamas from Gaza."
Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman said the report emphasized that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories violates human rights "not only against Palestinian people but against innocent people who came to show their sympathy."
"Now it's required to be a mechanism in order to translate this report into action and to bring the occupation commanders to trial for the crimes they committed," Barhoum said.
The Human Rights Council's report was compiled by former UN war crimes prosecutor Desmond de Silva, Trinidadian judge Karl T. Hudson-Phillips and Malaysian women's rights advocate Mary Shanthi Dairiam. It is scheduled to be presented to the council on Monday.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=188971 7 jul 2011, 00:42 , Respect -
Maria 24 sept 2010
Resheq wants UNHRC recommendations against Israeli be implemented
DAMASCUS, (PIC)-- Ezzat Al-Resheq, member of Hamas's political bureau, has welcomed the report by UNHRC committee that investigated the attack on the Freedom Flotilla last May accusing Israel of committing war crimes.
In press statement he issued, Resheq urged the international community and its concerned agencies to carryout the recommendation of the UNHRC in hunting and prosecuting the perpetrators of the Flotilla massacre.
"The Israeli carnage on board the Mavi Marmara ship was one episode in the decades-long series of Zionist terrorism against the Palestinian people, and against every free person in this world who defends Palestinians or calls for the restoration of their national rights," Resheq said, citing as an example Rachel Currie, the American activist who was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer while trying to stop it from destroying a Palestinian home in the Rafah refugee camp in 2003.
He also said that the consistent failure of the international community to hold the Zionist entity accountable for its crimes had given the wrong message to the Israeli occupation and encouraged it to commit even more crimes without fearing prosecution.
http://bit.ly/dzM9ML
Hamas urges UN to prosecute Israel
A spokesman for the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, says the UN should prosecute Israeli leaders for the attack against a Gaza-bound convoy.
Fawzi Barhoum made the comment on Thursday after the UN Human Rights Commission, investigating Tel Aviv's assault against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, said that Israel violated the international laws.
"Now it's required to be a mechanism in order to translate this report into action and to bring the occupation commanders to trial for the crimes they committed," Barhoum said.
He said the UN report emphasized that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories violates human rights "not only against Palestinian people but against innocent people who came to show their sympathy."
On May 31, Israeli commandos stormed the aid convoy in international waters, killing nine Turkish activists and injuring dozens others.
The Gaza Freedom Flotilla was trying to deliver thousands of tons of humanitarian supplies to the 1.5 million impoverished people of Gaza, who have been under Israel's siege since 2007.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/143754.html
RTV Interviews Ken O'Keefe About Gaza Flotilla Report
'Is that the behavior of a terrorist?'
Kenneth O'Keefe vehemently denies the IDF allegations against him and demands even one shred of evidence.
About a week after the raid on the flotilla, the IDF Spokesman's Unit issued a statement to the media entitled "Specific Flotilla Passangers [sic] Linked to Al-Qaeda, Hamas and Other Terror Organizations." O'Keefe's name appears in second place on the list. He is described as follows: "Ken O'Keefe (Born 1969 ), an American and British citizen, is a radical anti-Israel activist and operative of the Hamas Terror organization. He attempted to enter the Gaza Strip in order to form and train a commando unit for the Palestinian terror organization." (Source: http://idfspokesperson.com/2010/06/06/intel-specific-flotilla-passangers-linked- to-al-qaeda-hamas-and-other-terror-organizations-6-june-2010/ )
As usual, the information, which drew headlines in Israel and was quoted abroad, was not sourced.
O'Keefe vehemently denies this accusation and is demanding that the IDF spokesman supply even one shred of evidence for the allegations against him. Since his discharge from the Marines 20 years ago, he has not engaged in any military activity, he says. He does not believe in armed resistance ("except in the case of self-defence, as enshrined in international law" ) and the organization he founded, Aloha Palestine, is committed to verifiable inspections that ensure no weapons are being transported and has endorsements from well-known international figures.
"I went to Gaza to hold meetings with the people I hoped to develop trade with, among them growers of carnations who grow millions of flowers a year but cannot export them. I wanted to hear what materials were needed there and what could be done to enable some of the factories to reopen. All of that is documented. My laptop, which is still in the hands of the IDF, contains all my correspondence with the people I arranged to meet with. Everything can be easily verified.
"My activity is completely open. I spoke about it on television, I was interrogated in Israel on my previous visit there and I hid nothing. When we were in jail, I demanded to be tried on all the charges against me, and together with another Irish citizen I refused to leave Israel, but to no avail. In Ashdod I was asked only a few basic questions by an intelligence man. In jail a different intelligence man collared me for a conversation in the presence of dozens of our people, who can testify that I asked again to see a judge and face trial. Is that the behavior of a terrorist?"
http://bit.ly/aOeJO5
Flotilla survivor wants UK action
Alex Phillips
After the release of a UN report about the Israeli attack on a Turkish-flagged Gaza-bound aid ship, one of the survivors says she hopes the UK will finally take action.
"They have listened to more than 100 witnesses who were on the flotilla, looked at their evidence and described the action of the Israeli military in the way that they have -- with the extreme violence that was used against unarmed civilians on board," flotilla survivor Alex Phillips told Press TV on Thursday.
"Now we as witnesses to that violence knew that that was the case but now it has been formalized in this report, and we would now hope and expect that our representatives in the British government will recognize the crimes described and take action on our behalf," she added.
The remarks come after the UN Human Rights Council released a report on Wednesday, condemning Israel's deadly attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in international waters on May 31.
Turkey has praised the UN probe into the attack, which killed nine Turkish nationals, and called it "absolutely unbiased."
According to Phillips, the weight of the public opinion and the support of the British government are now needed to communicate clearly to Israel that there will be serious consequences for this type of illegal and unacceptable conduct.
Phillips says the evidence which has been gathered in the UN probe could now be used in prosecutions and the international criminal court.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/143814.html
RTV Interviews Ken O'Keefe About Gaza Flotilla Report
Survivor of bloody massacre on passenger ship Mavi Marmara, reacts to UN findings of Israeli violations of international law.
(NEW YORK / CORVALLIS) - A United Nations Human Rights Council investigation concluded that the Israeli military broke international laws during a raid on a Turkish ship that was part of an aid flotilla trying to deliver humanitarian supplies to Gaza.
Ken O'Keefe of AlohaPalestine.com, says that the Israeli commandos stole footage that shows executions carried out on the flotilla.
He is currently on a speaking tour of the Northwest, along with fellow Salem-News.com writer Eileen Fleming of WeAreWideAwake.org, that will last several more days.
So far Ken has appeared at two locations in Eugene, Oregon; Harris Hall at OSU, and Tsunami Books. He had a full house at the Corvallis Odd Fellows Hall Wednesday evening.
This interview recorded Thursday for RTV was conducted while Ken was still in Corvallis, Oregon.
(4:28) UN -- Resolved Gaza flotilla report
http://bit.ly/c1YWaS
Israel accuses UN panel of obsession
Israeli soldiers attacked a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in the Mediterranean Sea in May.
Israeli premier accuses a UN panel in charge of probing Tel Aviv's deadly attack against a Gaza-bound convoy of being obsessed with targeting Israel.
The allegation was made on Thursday after the UN Human Rights Commission reported that the Israeli attack against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla on May 31 was a "willful killing."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office issued a statement, calling the report "another tendentious, distorted report, on behalf of a body that obsessively persecutes Israel."
The UN report also said that Israel used "unnecessary violence" during the attack, which killed at least nine Turkish activists and injured dozens more.
According to the probe, the Israeli assault in international waters "constituted grave violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law."
The Israeli Foreign Ministry also reiterated late Wednesday that the Human Rights Council had a biased, politicized and extremist approach.
In late May, the Gaza Freedom Flotilla was trying to deliver thousands of tons of humanitarian supplies to the 1.5 million impoverished people of Gaza, who have been under Israel siege since 2007.
About the siege, the UN Human Rights Council's mission concluded that Israel's naval blockade was unlawful because of the humanitarian crisis there.
The report was compiled by former UN war crimes prosecutor Desmond de Silva, Trinidadian judge Karl T. Hudson-Phillips and Malaysian women's rights advocate Mary Shanthi Dairiam. It is scheduled to be debated in the UN Human Rights Council on Monday.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/143752.html
'I am not a Zionist, I am a Palestinian and a citizen'
Balad MK Haneen Zoabi slams Israeli gov't's characterization of UN flotilla report as "not objective", calls 'Mavi Marmara' passengers peace activists and blames IDF for boarding ship.
MK Haneen Zoabi (Balad) stridently attacked the Israeli government's characterization of UN human rights reports as "not objective" in a contentious interview with Yair Lapid on his Channel 2 news program Ulpan Shishi Friday night.
Zoabi claimed during the interview that IDF's boarding of the Mavi Marmara in international waters was illegal and contrary to international law. She also maintained that there was no plan for activists to attack the IDF soldiers and that she, along with the activists around her, had been surprised that the IDF actually sent commandos to board the ship.
She also defended her participation in the Free Gaza flotilla and expressed surprise at what she termed the "racist" reaction many Israeli politicians and the public had towards her participation.
"I am honest to my identity and to my citizenship. I am not a Zionist," said Zoabi. "I am a an Arab, a Palestinian and a citizen."
When asked by Yair Lapid, whether she considered her fellow passengers on the Mavi Marmara peace activists, Zoabi responded, "Definitely."
Zoabi demands state prosecute IDF soldiers
On Wednesday, three UN-appointed human rights experts announced their findings, stating that Israeli forces violated international law when they raided a Gaza-bound aid flotilla and killed nine activists earlier this year.
The UN Human Rights Council's fact-finding mission concluded that the naval blockade of Gaza was unlawful because of the humanitarian crisis there, and described the military raid on the flotilla as brutal and disproportionate.
After the report was released on Wednesday evening, Zoabi lauded the findings of the panel and was keen to praise the "professionalism and fairness in [the Human Rights Council's fact finding mission's] efforts to reveal the truth." She also called on Israel to move forward with the findings of the panel and to indict the Israeli citizens responsible for the Mavi Marmara boarding operation.
"We must not settle for declarations of condemnation but we must work to put the criminals to justice, those who ordered and those who carried out the orders," Zoabi said.
She added, "All attempts of character assassination will not make Israel appear innocent."
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=189143
'Great flotilla' group mounts anti-Israeli campaign
Organizers of next Gaza aid sail mount display featuring Israeli premier clutching bloody knife, skeleton of Israeli soldier with Palestinian children coming out of its mouth in efforts to rally support for journey. Foreign Ministry: Campaign heinous.
While Israel is studying the UN Human Rights Council report probing the events of May's Gaza-bound aid sail, the organizers are preparing for their next sail, by by launching an anti-Israel street and media campaign. .
The future flotilla is expected to reach the area in early October, carrying hundreds of anti-Israeli activist from Europe. Organizers launched the media campaign in London, last week.
The 4,000-mile journey, which is currently still land-bound, will arrive in Syria next week. Participants will then set sail to Egypt's al-Arish port and from there to Rafah crossing.
For now, the participants' campaign have taken them to Torino, Italy, where they staged a support rally dubbed "Viva Palestine from Italy to Gaza" and have embarked on a mission to raise funds and supporters, using displays depicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holding a bloody butcher knife and a second display feature the skeleton head of an Israeli soldier, with Palestinian children coming out of its mouth.
The Netanyahu display
Displays including skulls embedded with the Star of David and Palestinian flags are expected to be shown throughout the journey.
Organizers claim the flotilla will include 12 vessels carrying 5,000 activists, but Israel says only a few hundreds are expected to actually arrive.
Foreign Ministry Communications Director Yossi Levy said Friday that "the media ruckus the sail activists are trying to rile up is the opening shot in a heinous campaign which in unjustifiable and means only to damage Israel's international image and standing.
"Just as the Marmara terror ship was not carrying so much as one ounce of humanitarian aid for Gazans... this sail and others like it aim to breach a hypothetical blockade and ease 'mass hunger' which is nothing more than the figment of an anti-Israeli campaign."
Gaza, he concluded, "Longs not for the end of an Israeli occupation, but for the end of Hamas occupation, which has plunged it into great darkness."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3959486,00.html 7 jul 2011, 00:42 , Respect -
Maria 25 sept 2010
Turkey wants Flotilla probe 'complete'
Turkey's President Abdullah Gul speaks at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, September 24, 2010.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul has called on the UN Human Rights Council to complete its probe into an Israeli attack on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that killed nine Turkish activists.
Gul also urged Israel to take necessary steps regarding the deadly attack.
"Turkey cannot act as if nothing happened last May when Israeli troops stormed the aid flotilla. We expect Israel to take necessary measures. We also expect the [UN] Human Rights Council to complete its probe into the incident," Gul said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Friday.
The Turkish president's comments came two days after an inquiry ordered by the UN rights council stated that there was clear evidence to support prosecutions against Israel for "willful killing" and torture committed when its troops attacked the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in international waters of the Mediterranean Sea early on May 31.
The aid flotilla, organized by the Free Gaza Movement and the Turkish Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief, was carrying humanitarian aid, medical supplies, and construction materials to Gaza which has been under tight Israeli blockade since 2007.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/143857.html
Israeli crimes vs peace activisme. What now?
A new convoy headed to the Palestinian region of Gaza has started its journey on September 18th in order to bring the population under illegal siege humanitarian aid.
The day of the departure wasn't randomly chosen. On September 16th-18th, in fact, was the 28th anniversary of the ferocious massacre of Sabra and Shatila, carried out by Israeli commandos headed by former prime minister of the Zionist entity, Ariel Sharon.
One of the many massacres carried out by Zionism since its inception.
"Fifteen minutes by car from Tel-Aviv University lies the village of Kfar Qassim where, on 29 October 1956, Israeli troops massacred forty-nine villagers returning from their fields. Then there was Qibya in the 1950s, Samoa in the 1960s, the villages of the Galilee in 1976, Sabra and Shatila in 1982, Kfar Qana in 1999, Wadi Ara in 2000 and the Jenin Refugee Camp in 2002. And in addition there are the numerous killings Betselem, Israel's leading human rights organisation, keeps track of. There has never been an end to Israel's killing of Palestinians." [1]
So in these very days the massive convoy partly by land partly by sea is heading to Gaza, that has been transformed into a concentration camp by the illegal blockade imposed by the Zionist entity.
Last edition of flotilla has ended in a bloodbath due to the over-excitement of special Israeli commandos racing in order to get a medal of honour, and nine peace activists were brutally killed in a show of unnecessary violence, zionist speciality.
While the world was outraged by such abuse of force against unarmed civilians in international waters, Israeli officials themselves were probably wondering why worldwide public opinion was still not used to their crimes.
The truth, in fact, is that killing civilians is Israel's policy. These are not "tragic mistakes" nor "collateral damages," and there is no "regret" about it. Slaughtering civilians, men, women, children, the elderly, is the foundation on which Israel itself was created: the ethnic cleansing of a whole nation and the creation of a state based on racism and apartheid.
This, combined with the unconditional political and financial support of the USA and the impunity granted by the International Community, allows the Zionist regime to carry out such crimes undisturbed.
Until so-called "intellectuals" writing for mainstream outlets of the likes of Washington Post and New York Times will keep engaging in shallow demagoguery such as "Yes, Israel kills, but it's the only democracy in the Middle East," or "Yes, Israel kills, but it has the right to self defense," or "Yes, Israel kills, but it's a victim," world's stability will remain an illusion.
Already in 1937, Ben Gurion, founder of the zionist illegal colony, had said: "We must expel Arabs and take their places."
Golda Meir, former prime minister of Israel, in a burst of ignorance, has declared to The Times of London in 1969: "There is no such thing as a Palestinian people... It is not as if we came and threw them out and took their country. The didn't exist."
Menachem Begin, former prime minister of Israel, declared in a speech to the Knesset: "[Palestinians] are beasts walking on two legs."
As an illegal organisation that can rely on the silence and the complicity of world's most powerful nations, Israel has never shown any respect for human life. Any human life, for that matter.
The occupation of Palestine, the abuses on the native population, the invasions of Lebanon, the countless massacres of civilians that fill Israel's history, the highest contempt towards any international law and regulation have always been met by shy disapproval from the International Community.
Last May 31st, an Israeli commando killed eight Turkish citizens and one US citizen of Turkish origins. Unlike many people might think, it would have made no difference if the activists were all from Western countries.
Rachel Corrie was a US citizen and was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer.
Tristan Anderson is a US citizen, Bay Area activist and photojournalist, and was shot in the head at close range by an Israeli soldier, causing him severe brain damage and blindness in his right eye.
Emily Henochowicz is a US citizen and lost an eye when she was shot in the face with a tear gas canister at a demonstration in the West Bank by Israeli military.
Tom Hurndall was a British photography student and was shot in the head in the Gaza Strip by an Israeli sniper.
James Miller was a Welsh filmmaker and was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier while filming a documentary in Rafah.
Brian Avery is an American citizen who was shot in the face by an Israeli soldier in the West Bank town of Jenin, causing him permanent disfigurement.
Despite its power and the complicity of Western governments, however, Israel has made it clear more than once that it's not able to handle peace activism, and what the Zionist regime is most afraid of are the hundreds of thousands of activists of all ages and walks of life committed to expose its crimes.
Because it's only a matter of time and soon the zionist colony will be dismantled, and Palestinians will be able to go back to their own wounded country.
http://bit.ly/b58KAv 7 jul 2011, 00:43 , Respect -
Maria 26 sept 2010
Peres: Israel will 'seek friendship with Turkey'
President Shimon Peres said Israel will "seek friendship with Turkey" despite fallout over a deadly flotilla raid, while Turkish President Abdullah Gul said normalizing soured ties would be up to Israel.
The leaders appeared independently on a US Sunday talk show, and while the two insisted that they remain on friendly personal terms, there appeared to be tension over a recent New York meeting which fell through amid charges by Peres that Turkey had demanded an apology over the Israeli raid.
"I read they first want apologies and compensation. I was very much surprised," Peres told CNN show "Fareed Zakaria GPS."
That meeting was scrapped between the leaders, whose countries had been strategic allies until the raid, after which Ankara withdrew its ambassador and canceled joint war games.
"But we didn't change our attitude to Turkey," Peres said. "We were friends of Turkey, we shall seek friendship with Turkey."
Last week Turkey's Anatolia news agency reported that Gul didn't meet Peres in New York because of the Turkish leader's busy schedule, and on Sunday's broadcast Gul said reports that his government demanded an apology from Peres as a condition of their meeting were exaggerated.
"No, these are not correct," he said.
Yet Gul reiterated Ankara's position that Israel was to blame for the Mediterranean tragedy that left nine people dead, including eight Turks.
"They are defending their act and they are criticizing us as if we (did) something wrong. With this understanding, how can I meet?" he asked.
"We do not prefer this deterioration in relationship but unfortunately it was a great mistake from Israeli side because this blockage, embargo on Gaza," he told CNN in English.
"We're not against Israel. We are not enemy, but we have a right to criticize the policies."
While not directly stating that Turkey wanted an apology in order to mend ties, Gul said fixing the relationship was "up to Israel."
Peres said that if he had a chance to meet with Gul he would tell him "we have to continue our friendship," and that there were ways for Turkey to remain a key broker in the Middle East.
"Tell Hamas to stop shooting," Peres said, referring to the Islamist movement that in 2007 took over the Gaza Strip, from where rockets rained down on Israel in 2008 prompting a deadly Israeli incursion into the coastal enclave.
"Tell Iran to stop sending missiles. Tell (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad not to threaten to destroy Israel or deny the Holocaust," Peres said.
Gul said his government invited Hamas representatives to Turkey after their election win in Gaza, and told them to "act democratically" and to stop the "nonsense" of firing rockets into Israel.
http://yhoo.it/beqacK
Yildirim: UN report on Gaza siege and Flotilla attack exposed Israel's true face
ISTANBUL, (PIC)-- Head of the Turkish humanitarian relief foundation IHH Bulent Yildirim hailed the report issued by the UN human rights council's probe committee on Gaza siege and the Israeli attack on Freedom Flotilla aid convoy, stressing that the report unveiled Israel's true face.
Yildirim said in a news conference held in Istanbul with head of Mazloum Dar for human rights Jihad Gokdemir that the report confirmed that the Flotilla massacre was brutal and the blockade on Gaza is unjustified.
For his part, Gokdemir highlighted legal details in the report, affirming that Israel is trying to raise doubts about and question the integrity of the UN probe committee after it prepared its report.
He said that Turkey will sue Israel in the international criminal court on October 14 on behalf of those who were assaulted and killed during the Israeli military attack on Freedom Flotilla, adding that there will be another lawsuit later against Israel with the international court of justice.
The Turkish activist pointed out that the report also emphasized that the Israeli blockade on Gaza is illegal and Israel has no right to prevent humanitarian aid ships from reaching Gaza, affirming that his top priority is to have Gaza siege lifted.
The activist also noted that the report stated clearly that Israel deliberately kills, tortures, and maltreats civilians and limits freedoms in general.
Different media outlets including the Palestinian information center (PIC) and some families of Flotilla victims attended the conference.
http://bit.ly/duluyB
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27 sept 2010
PA Cabinet affirms support for Palestinian negotiators
RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian Authority Cabinet affirmed its support for Palestinian negotiators on Monday, at a weekly meeting in Ramallah.
In a statement, the Cabinet welcomed US President Barack Obama's call for an end to settlement activity during his address to the UN General Assembly on Thursday. PA ministers warned of a new phase in settlement building, as the 10-month slowdown in construction expired.
Prime Minister Salam Fayyad briefed the Cabinet on his recent visit to New York to participate in a meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee, a group of donors to Palestine that meets every six months to coordinate efforts.
Fayyad said the full support of the international community was crucial to the success of the PA's efforts to establish a state. Ministers welcomed the Middle East Quartet statement which supported the PA's two-year plan to build state institutions.
The Cabinet welcomed the results of the UN report on Israel's attack of a Turkish-flagged Gaza-bound aid flotilla. The report found that Israel violated international law during the raid, in which nine passengers were killed. Ministers said the UN findings were in line with the PA's expectations.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=318686
Freedom Flotilla Coalition Grows in Athens
Legal, Political and Grassroots Action to End Israeli Impunity
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition has just concluded its meeting in Athens, where we assessed developments related to our ongoing efforts to end Israel's criminal blockade on Gaza and other illegal policies perpetrated against the Palestinian people. We have said that we would not allow Israel's violence against Freedom Flotilla I stop our global citizen efforts to stand up to Israel's ongoing intransigence and indeed it has not.
Over the last three months, we have been joined by national coalitions in Italy, Switzerland, France, Spain, Canada, Norway, Belgium, Austria, Australia, and the United States, and other countries, each of which is working on sending a boat to Gaza. As we speak, a Jewish boat is on its way to Gaza in a statement to the world that Israel does not act in the name of world Jewry, nor does Israel's blockade of Gaza have anything to do with protecting Jews. The people of Gaza anxiously await their arrival.
We have started a movement that Israel, with all its weapons, cannot stop. We have been forced to do this because our governments have not been willing to hold Israel accountable for systematic violations of Palestinian human rights. We expect our governments to support our nonviolent actions to uphold international law, and to take action when their unarmed citizens are violently attacked, beaten, arrested and killed. We lost nine of our colleagues to Israel's senseless violence and this is only a fraction of the violence that Palestinians have been subjected to over the last 60 years.
Today the independent Fact Finding Mission, commissioned by the United Nations Human Rights Council releases the conclusions of its investigation into the Freedom Flotilla raid. The UN flotilla report concludes that Israeli troops used incredible violence against us, committing "grave breaches" of international law. The report also says there is clear evidence to support prosecutions against Israel for willful killing and torture committed when its soldiers stormed our flotilla last May.
Greece, as a signatory to the Rome Statute has the right to bring this matter before the International Criminal Court. Our respective countries have the ability to invoke universal jurisdictions to hold Israel accountable for its crimes.
Israel has consistently tried to label any individual or group that acts to defend Palestinian rights as terrorist. They launched a slanderous attack on our Turkish partners. The UN Flotilla report rejected the notion that intervention by civil society to address the cause of a humanitarian crisis is meddlesome. It called for space for both humanitarian intervention to alleviate the crisis in Gaza, and political action to address the causes creating the crisis.
The Second Freedom Flotilla now being organized, like the one so brutally attacked by Israel, will aim to do both. In the meantime we call upon our countries to use all available legal and political means to ensure that Israel stops acting above the law so that we do not have to put our lives on the line to do so.
http://bit.ly/cgZPwy
UN Fact-Finding Mission Says Israelis "Executed" US Citizen Furkan Dogan
The report of the fact-finding mission of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on the Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla released last week shows conclusively, for the first time, that US citizen Furkan Dogan and five Turkish citizens were murdered execution-style at point blank range by Israeli commandos, and that five other passengers were killed in similar circumstances.
The report reveals that Dogan, the 19-year-old US citizen of Turkish descent, was filming with a small video camera on the top deck of the Mavi Marmara when he was shot twice in the head, once in the back and in the left leg and foot and that he was shot in the face at point blank range while lying on the ground.
The report says Dogan had apparently been "lying on the deck in a conscious or semi-conscious, state for some time" before being shot in his face.
The forensic evidence that establishes that fact is "tattooing around the wound in his face," indicating that the shot was "delivered at point blank range" The report describes the forensic evidence as showing that "the trajectory of the wound, from bottom to top, together with a vital abrasion to the left shoulder that could be consistent with the bullet exit point, is compatible with the shot being received while he was lying on the ground on his back."
Based on both "forensic and firearm evidence," the fact-finding panel concluded that Dogan's killing and that of five Turkish citizens by the Israeli troops on the Mavi Marmari May 31 "can be characterized as extra-legal, arbitrary and summary executions." (See Report [.pdf] Page 38, Section 170)
The report confirmed what the Obama administration already knew from the autopsy report on Dogan, but the administration has remained silent about the killing of Dogan, which could be an extremely difficult political problem for the administration in its relations with Israel.
The Turkish government gave the autopsy report on Dogan to the US Embassy in July and it was then passed on to the Department of Justice, according to a US government source who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the administration's policy of silence on the matter. The source said the purpose of obtaining the report was to determine whether an investigation of the killing by the Justice Department (DOJ) was appropriate.
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Asked by this writer whether the DOJ had received the autopsy report on Dogan, DOJ spokesperson Laura Sweeney refused to comment.
The administration has not volunteered any comment on the fact-finding mission report and was not asked to do so by any news organization. Although the report's revelations and conclusions about the killing of Dogan and the five other victims were widely reported in the Turkish media last week, not a single story on the report has appeared in US news media.
The administration has made it clear through its inaction and its explicit public posture that it has no intention of pressing the issue of the murder of a US citizen in cold blood by Israeli commandos.
On June 13, two weeks after the Mavi Marmara attack, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs issued a statement saying that Israel "should be allowed to undertake an investigation into events that involve its national security" and that Israel's military justice system "meets international standards and is capable of conducting a serious and credible investigation."
Another passenger whom forensic evidence shows was killed execution-style, according to the OHCHR report, is Ibrahim Bilgen, a 60-year-old Turkish citizen. Bilgen is believed by forensics experts to have been shot initially from the helicopter above the Mavi Marmara and then shot in the side of the head while lying seriously wounded.
The fact-finding mission was given forensic evidence that, after the initial shot in chest from above, Bilgen was shot in the head with a "soft baton round at such close proximity that an entire bean bag and its wadding penetrated the skull and lodged in the chest from above," the mission concluded.
"Soft baton rounds" are supposed to be fired for nonlethal purposes at a distance and aimed only at the stomach, but are lethal when fired at the head, especially from close range.
The forensic evidence cited by the fact-finding mission on the killing of Dogan and five other passengers came from both the autopsy reports and pathology reports done by forensic personnel in Turkey and from interviews with those who wrote the reports. Experts in forensic pathology and firearms assisted the mission in interpreting that forensic evidence.
The account, provided by the OHCHR of the events on board the Mavi Marmara on its way to help break the economic siege of Gaza May 31 of this year, refutes the version of events aggressively pushed by the Israeli military and supports the testimony of passengers on board.
The report suggests that, from the beginning, Israeli policy viewed the Gaza flotilla as an opportunity to use lethal force against pro-Hamas activists. It quotes testimony by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak before the Israeli government's Turkel Committee that specific orders were given by the Israeli government "to continue intelligence tracking of the flotilla organizers with an emphasis on the possibility that amongst the passengers in the flotilla there were terror elements who would attempt to harm Israeli forces."
The idea that the passenger list would be seeded with terrorists determined to attack Israeli defense forces appears to have been a ploy to justify treating the operation as likely to require the use of military force against the passengers.
[media id=1110068176n3tm size=large]When details of the Israeli plan to forcibly take over the ships in the flotilla were published in the Israeli press on May 30, the passengers on board the Mavi Marmara realized that the Israelis might use deadly force against them. Some leaders of the IHH (the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Aid), which had purchased the ships for the mission, were advocating defending the boat against the Israeli boarding attempt, whereas other passengers advocated nonviolence only.
That led to efforts to create improvised weapons from railings and other equipment on the Mavi Marmara. However, the commission concluded that there was no evidence of any firearms having being taken aboard the ship, as charged by Israel.
The report notes that the Israeli military never communicated a request by radio to inspect the cargo on board any of the ships, apparently contradicting the official justification given by the Israeli government for the military attack on the Mavi Marmara and other ships of preventing any military contraband from reaching Gaza.
According to the OHCHR report, Israeli Chief of General Staff Gabi Ashkenazi testified to the Turkel Committee August 11 that the initial rules of engagement for the operation prohibited live fire except in life-threatening situations, but that that they were later modified to target protesters "deemed to be violent" in response to the resistance by passengers.
That decision apparently followed the passengers' successful repulsion of an Israeli effort to board the ship from Zodiac boats.
The report confirms that, from the beginning of the operation, passengers were fired on by helicopters flying above the Mavi Marmara to drop commandos on the deck.
Contrary to Israeli claims that one or more Israeli troops were wounded by firearms, the report says no medical evidence of a gunshot wound to an Israeli soldier was found.
The OHCHR report confirms accounts from passengers on the Mavi Marmara that defenders subdued roughly ten Israeli commandos, took their weapons from them and threw them in the sea, except for one weapon hidden as evidence. The Israeli soldiers were briefly sequestered below and some were treated for wounds before being released by the defenders.
The OHCHR fact-finding mission will certainly be the most objective, thorough and in-depth inquiry into the events on board the Mavi Marmara and other ships in the flotilla of the four that have been announced.
The fact-finding mission was chaired by Judge Karl T. Hudson-Phillips, Q.C., retired judge of the International Criminal Court and former attorney general of Trinidad and Tobago, and included Sir Desmond de Silva, Q.C. of the United Kingdom, former chief prosecutor of the United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone and Ms. Mary Shanthi Dairiam of Malaysia, founding member of the board of directors of the International Women's Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific.
The mission interviewed 112 eyewitnesses to the Israeli attack in London, Geneva, Istanbul and Amman, Jordan. The Israeli government refused to cooperate with the fact-finding mission by making personnel involved in both planning and carrying out the attack available to be interviewed.
The Turkish governments announced its own investigation of the Israeli attack on August 10. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced the formation of a "Panel of Inquiry" on August 2, but its mandate was much more narrowly defined. It was given the mission to "receive and review the reports of the national investigations with the view to recommending ways of avoiding similar incidents in the future."
http://bit.ly/aUCpFs
[b]Israel labels charity "terrorists"[/b]
The UN Human Rights Council will investigate Israel's attack on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May. A recent UN report concluded Israel's military broke international laws during the raid which left nine activists dead.
(2:21) Newshound Israel labels charity terrorists
It also described the attack as brutal and disproportionate.
Israel still claims the incident was "self-defense" and considers the Turkish charity group which led the flotilla to be terrorists linked to Hamas.
As a result of the attack a relatively little known NGO was brought on the world stage.
"In the world in which we live today, where Islamic sympathizers are also been called terrorists, it is no wonder that IHH (the Humanitarian Relief Foundation from Turkey, which led the flotilla) is being accused in this way," revealed Ghada Kami, Research Fellow at Institute Of Arab and Islamic Studies.
The Turkish charity first popped up on the CIA radar four years ago. It has been banned in Israel and Germany, which say it is strongly linked with Hamas in Gaza.
Ismail Yilmaz says the last thing he would do is call himself a terrorist. He is a father of three and says he boarded the ship for Gaza for his three daughters.
"Gazan children should have a right to live freely; we want this so I joined that organization. If another event of this kind is organized -- I would go again," IHH volunteer Ismail Yilmaz says.
Set up in the early 1990s to help Bosnian Muslims, the IHH, or Humanitarian Relief Foundation, has offices in 120 countries
"If the people are in need -- we will go and we will show our solidarity for these people," informed Huseyin Oruc, Vice President of Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH).
And it showed solidarity in Pakistan, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Indonesia, Iraq, China as well as Palestinians.
"We have built hospitals, we have built schools, infrastructure, we have built houses for the people," Huseyin Oruc says.
Palestinian writer Ghada Kami says Israel is trying to portray the group as a terrorist one in order to try to justify the deadly flotilla raid.
"In the immediate aftermath, condemnation of what Israel had done, Israelis mounted a defense which was, in a way, quite clever, but not based on any facts," noted Ghada Kami.
It is now for the investigators to decide. Turkey, Israel and the UN, each with its own inquiry.
Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, told RT that the results of the recent UN report on the flotilla incident were pre-determined.
"This report was determined in advance, the Human Rights Council held an emergency session only a day or two after the flotilla incident happened," Neuer said. "They declared Israel guilty of 'an outrageous attack', so the outcome was entirely pre-determined, and this is not something that's exceptional."
"In fact, Mary Robinson, who was the UN rights chief, said the Human Rights Council has a pattern of acting politically and not for human rights," Hillel Neuer added. "Let's remember who the membership is -- Saudi Arabia, China, Colonel Gaddafi of Libya is now a member of the Human Rights Council. This is not a body that cares about human rights. This is a body that is political, that is engaged in a constant campaign to de-legitimize Israel, and human rights is the last thing on the minds of members like Saudi Arabia, Cuba and Libya."
MaximsNewsNetwork: 27 September 2010 -- UNHRC - UNTV: -- Geneva, Switzerland - The United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council was told today (27 September) in Geneva that Israeli troops broke international law by storming an aid flotilla bound for Gaza and Karl Hudson-Phillips, Chairman of the International Independent Fact Finding Mission, said the killings of activists on-board were "serious violations of both humanitarian and human rights law."
Hudson-Philips said that "passengers were assaulted by being kicked and gun-butted," adding that the conduct of the Israeli military "was disproportionate and excessive and that they demonstrated levels of totally unnecessary violence."
Israeli Ambassador Aharon Leshno Yaar said that "Israel decided not to participate with the work of this councils committee" because of "a determined lack of faith in this Council."
Today's debate in Geneva follows the publication last week of a critical report on the raid on the flotilla on May 31 when nine activists on a Turkish ship were killed as they attempted to breach the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza.
Palestinian Ambassador Ibrahim Khraishi said that "the offensive character of Israel made it kill those innocent civilians" who did not carry "a single missile or bullet or a lethal tool on these ships."
Turkish Ambassador Oguz Demiralp said "while reading the report, I couldn't help asking myself whether Israel has a heart in its chest or a stone."
The independent fact finding mission, which interviewed more than 100 witnesses in Geneva, London, Istanbul and Amman during the course of its work, also found that once the Israeli forces took complete control of the Mavi Marmara, passengers with few exceptions were kept handcuffed and kneeling for hours.
28 sept 2010
US concerned UNHRC flotilla probe may stop peace talks
State Dept. opposes implementation of report, while EU says it should be used by the UN's general investigation.
The State Department is concerned that the UN Human Rights Council report on the Gaza flotilla could be used to stop the peace process, AFP reported on Tuesday.
"We are concerned with the tone, content and conclusions of the report," US envoy to the UN Human Rights Committee Eileen Chamberlain reportedly told the organization.
The UN Human Rights Council's fact-finding mission concluded that the naval blockade of Gaza was unlawful because of the humanitarian crisis there, and described the military raid on the flotilla as brutal and disproportionate.
She added that the US things "the report should not be used to justify actions that will prevent peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians."
The European Union, however, said the report should be transferred to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon's probe, which includes Israeli and Turkish investigators.
The 56-page document lists a series of alleged crimes committed by Israeli forces during and after the raid, including willful killing and torture, and claims there is "clear evidence to support prosecutions."
"A series of violations of international law, including international humanitarian and human rights law, were committed by the Israeli forces during the interception of the flotilla and during the detention of passengers in Israel prior to deportation," the experts found.
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=189515
US criticises 'unbalanced' flotilla probe
The United States on Tuesday criticised a UN probe into Israel's storming of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, urging the Human Rights Council to prevent the report from being used to torpedo peace talks.
"We are concerned by the report's unbalanced language, tone and conclusions," US ambassador Eileen Donahoe told the Human Rights Council.
"We urge that this report not be used for actions that could disrupt the direct Israeli-Palestinian talks now underway or actions that could make it harder," she added.
A probe ordered by the UN Human Rights Council said last week there was clear evidence to back a prosecution against Israel for killing and torture when troops stormed the flotilla in May, leaving nine Turkish activists dead.
The report also threw out Israel's argument that the activists were violent, thereby justifying the decision by soldiers to open fire.
It found that no offensive weapons were taken on board any of the vessels of the flotilla except a few catapults.
From the outset, Israel has rejected the probe as biased.
Other Western states however, called for the report to be transmitted to the a separate United Nations probe into the incident which was set up by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon.
Switzerland said it hopes that the separate inquiry "would take into account the analysis and conclusions of the Human Rights Council's probe."
The European Union also "encouraged Israel to follow-up on the conclusions" of the rights inquiry.
The Israeli and Palestinian leaders relaunched peace negotiations earlier this month but the fledgling process is already in danger after the expiry of a moratorium on Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
http://yhoo.it/9Ltulq
US criticizes 'unbalanced' flotilla probe
The United States on Tuesday criticized a UN probe into Israel's storming of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, urging the Human Rights Council to prevent the report from being used to torpedo peace talks.
"We are concerned by the report's unbalanced language, tone and conclusions," US ambassador Eileen Donahoe told the Human Rights Council. "We urge that this report not be used for actions that could disrupt the direct Israeli-Palestinian talks now underway or actions that could make it harder," she added.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3961358,00.html
Prison Service chief summoned by Turkel committee
Prison Service Chief Benny Kaniak has been summoned by the Turkel Committee investigating the IDF raid on the Gaza-bound flotilla.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3961349,00.html 7 jul 2011, 00:44 , Respect -
Maria UN panel: Israel suppressing footage of Gaza flotilla raid
Member of the UN Human Rights Council's fact-finding mission says Israel is trying maintain a monopoly over its version of the deadly May 31 events aboard the Turkish aid ship Mavi Marmara.
An expert panel investigating Israel's boarding of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla four months ago said Tuesday that Israel is suppressing footage of the incident it seized from the passengers.
The three independent, UN-appointed experts said Israeli soldiers confiscated photos and video material from more than two dozen journalists and others aboard the flotilla during the raid, which killed nine pro-Palestinian activists.
"When the military took over the ships, they scrupulously confiscated all photographic material," said Karl T. Hudson-Phillips, a former judge at the International Criminal Court who chaired the panel. "All cameras were seized, all cell phones were seized, all laptops were confiscated."
"From this one would conclude that part of the strategy, as we indicated in our report, was to control information and to have a monopoly on versions as to what existed," he said.
An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, Yigal Palmor, rejected the charge, saying the report's authors had "no way of knowing what footage Israel has and therefore what - if anything - was suppressed."
Israel refused to cooperate with the panel from the start, arguing that the UN Human Rights Council which commissioned it was biased against Israel. Requests by the experts to visit Israel and interview Israeli officials were refused.
Palmor said Israel had returned all equipment and material that journalists on the boats had requested through the International Federation of Journalists, but acknowledged that most of the material had not been returned.
Questions about video footage shot during the raid have been central to the dispute over what happened on the Mavi Marmara on May 31, in which eight Turkish activists and one Turkish-American were shot and killed.
Israel used confiscated videos to justify why its troops opened fire after rappelling onto the deck, saying they came under attack by activists wielding clubs, axes and metal rods. The army says its soldiers were armed with non-lethal paintball guns as their primary weapons and only resorted to using their handguns after they were assaulted.
The activists said they were defending their ship after it was attacked by Israeli soldiers in international waters on its way to delivering humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
"We interviewed persons who told us that they had taken certain footage which was not seen in any of the versions released by the Israeli authorities," said Hudson-Phillips. "We also got evidence from some persons that parts of the footage released they recognized as being very close, if not identical, to what they visualized as having taken."
"It appears as if some use in a selective way was made of information seized," he said at a news conference in Geneva, where the panel had presented its report to the 47-nation rights council.
The 56-page report, which concluded that the Israeli raid was clearly unlawful, was sharply criticized Tuesday by the United States, which expressed concern at its unbalanced language, tone and conclusions.
"We urge that this report not be used for actions that could disrupt the direct Israeli-Palestinian talks now under way," said Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, the U.S. ambassador at the council.
The experts refrained from making recommendations in their report. But former U.N. war crimes prosecutor Desmond de Silva, another member of the panel, told reporters that since the Mavi Marmara was sailing under the flag of the Comoros Islands, that country could technically ask prosecutors at the International Criminal Court to pursue any alleged crimes.
Palmor, the Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, downplayed the possibility of prosecution.
"If the Comoros wants to take us to court, they may do so, of course, he said. We don't fear such a procedure because we don't feel we have anything to hide or anything to fear from a fair and balanced court of law.".
http://bit.ly/bzoyxd
Activists call on countries to stop Israeli violations
Rachel Corrie R.I.P.
ATHENS, - The Freedom Flotilla coalition ended its meeting in the Greek capital of Athens after discussing developments related to current efforts to end Israel's siege on the Gaza Strip and its unlawful policies against the Palestinians.
The coalition said in a statement on Tuesday that it will not allow Israeli violence against the first Freedom Flotilla to stop global efforts to stand against Israel's intransigence during the past three months.
We have joined a number of national alliances in Italy, Switzerland, France, Spain, Canada, Norway, Belgium, Austria, Australia, the U.S., and other countries. All of the aforementioned countries are working on sending ships to Gaza to break the siege, the coalition said.
We began a serious movement to stop Israel's intransigence, which the state of Israel cannot stop despite all of its power, the statement reads.
We took such action because our governments do not intend to hold Israel responsible for the violence it commits against the Palestinians, so we expect our governments to support non-violent acts and commit to international laws.
We must take necessary measures when defenseless citizens are exposed to violence, arrests, and murder, especially since we lost nine of our colleagues as a result of Israel's violence, which does not make sense, and this is only part of the violence the Palestinians have suffered in the past sixty years.
The coalition has studied the report issued by an independent fact-finding committee formed by the UN Human Rights Council on the attack against the Freedom Flotilla. It has been confirmed that Israeli forces used excessive force against activists on board and committed major violations of international law.
According to the Rome Statute, Greece has the right to take the case to international court and the countires have the power to call for international justice for Israel's violations of law, the committee stressed.
Israel constantly tries to name people and groups who defend the rights of the Palestinian people terrorists as they did with our Turkish partners. Despite that, preparations for the second Freedom Flotilla are under way and will have the same objective as the first one, the coalition explained.
We call on our countries to take all legal and political means available to ensure that the Israeli state stops its unlawful acts, so we will not be forced to put our lives on the line, the statement concluded.
http://bit.ly/dB8Yye
'ICC may probe Israel's flotilla attack'
Desmond de Silva, a member of a UN Human Rights Council
A UN expert has announced that the International Criminal Court (ICC) may probe Israel's brutal attack against a Gaza-bound aid convoy.
The Mavi Marmara ship was assaulted by Israeli navy commandos in international waters in May. The incident left nine Turkish activists dead and several others injured.
The ship's flag state is the Comoros Islands, which are members of the court, "which gives the ICC jurisdiction," AFP quoted Desmond de Silva, a member of a UN Human Rights Council's (UNHRC) probe into the attack, as saying on Tuesday.
Last week, UNHRC, which ordered the investigation of the Israeli attack, said that there is clear evidence to back prosecution against Israel for killing and torturing when its troops stormed the aid ship.
The probe also revealed that six of the nine deceased were "victims of summary executions."
The UN-appointed experts also said Israel withheld photos and video footage belonging to several reporters and other activists onboard the ship.
The Gaza Freedom Flotilla was trying to deliver thousands of tons of humanitarian supplies to the 1.5 million impoverished people of Gaza, who have been under Israel's siege since 2007.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/144414.html
ICC can examine aid flotilla case: UN expert
The International Criminal Court could examine Israel's deadly storming of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May, a member of a UN Human Rights Council's probe into the incident said Tuesday.
Desmond de Silva, a member of the inquiry, noted that the ship Mavi Marmara's flagstate is the Comoros Islands, which are members of the court, "which gives the ICC jurisdiction because the (offensives) were committed on board the Mavi Marmara."
The probe ordered by the UN Human Rights Council into the May 31 incident said last week that there is clear evidence to back prosecution against Israel for killing and torture when its troops stormed the aid ship, leaving nine Turkish activists dead.
It also said that six of the deceased were "victims of summary executions."
Israel has rejected the inquiry from the outset as biased.
During a UN Human Rights Council hearing on Tuesday, the United States also criticised the report for its "unbalanced language, tone and conclusions."
Other Western states however, called for the report to be transmitted to a separate United Nations probe into the incident which was set up by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon.
"The European Union suggests transmitting the report before us to the international panel of inquiry," an EU diplomat said on Tuesday.
She added that the bloc "strongly encourage Israel to follow-up on the conclusions of the" rights probe.
De Silva is a British lawyer and former UN war crimes prosecutor for Sierra Leone.
http://yhoo.it/aZKHtA
UN experts say Israel suppressing flotilla footage
Independent panel investigating Israel Navy raid claims Jerusalem is suppressing footage of incident confiscated from more than two dozens journalists, flotilla passengers.
An independent panel investigating Israel's boarding of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla says Jerusalem is suppressing footage of the incident it seized from the passengers.
The UN-appointed experts say Israeli soldiers confiscated still photos and video material from more than two dozen journalists and others aboard the flotilla during the raid May 31 in which nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed.
Karl T. Hudson-Phillips, a former judge at the International Criminal Court, told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that Israel appeared to be trying to "control information and to have monopoly on versions as to what existed."
Israel has dismissed the report, claiming the UN Human Rights Council that commissioned it is biased.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3961589,00.html
UN experts say Israel suppressing flotilla footage
GENEVA An independent panel investigating Israel's boarding of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla says Jerusalem is suppressing footage of the incident it seized from the passengers.
The UN-appointed experts say Israeli soldiers confiscated still photos and video material from more than two dozen journalists and others aboard the flotilla during the raid May 31 in which nine people were killed.
Karl T. Hudson-Phillips, a former judge at the International Criminal Court, told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that Israel appeared to be trying to "control information and to have monopoly on versions as to what existed."
Israel has dismissed the report, claiming the UN Human Rights Council that commissioned it is biased.
http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=189534 7 jul 2011, 00:45 , Respect -
Maria 29 sept 2010
Turkey 'disappointed' with US
Turkey's foreign minister lauded the UN Human Rights Council's decision to endorse the conclusions of the probe into the flotilla raid.
The minister expressed Turkey's disappointment over the US' decision to vote against the conclusions.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3962095,00.html
Update: UN body backs anti-Israel flotilla report
Human Rights Council agrees to endorse damning report on Israel's lethal raid on Turkish ship .
The United Nations Human Rights Council on Wednesday agreed to back a report which found "clear evidence" for legal action against Israel over its attack on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.
The resolution, which was tabled by Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, was approved with 30 votes in favor, one against and 15 abstentions.
It "endorses the conclusions contained in the report" of an inquiry ordered by the council on the May 31 incident during which nine Turkish nationals were killed when Israeli soldiers stormed ships heading to Gaza.
The damming report, compiled by three UN-appointed human rights experts, said that Israeli forces violated international law and showed "incredible violence" when they raided the Turkish Mavi Marma ship.
The UN Human Rights Council's fact-finding mission also concluded in a 56-page document that Israel's naval blockade of the Palestinian territory was unlawful because of the humanitarian crisis there, and described the military raid on the flotilla as brutal and disproportionate.
According to the UN probe, there is "clear evidence to support prosecutions" against Israel for "willful killing" and torture.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3962034,00.html
UN backs report on Israel's flotilla attack
The UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday agreed to back a report which found "clear evidence" for legal action against Israel over its attack on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.
The resolution, which was tabled by Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, was approved with 30 votes in favor, one against and 15 abstentions.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3962018,00.html
Even if Bin Laden Had Been on the Gaza-Bound Flotilla, Israel's Actions Would Have Been Illegal, Says UN-Appointed Judge
A screen shot from a videoclip released by the Israeli Defense Forces shows activists onboard the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara attacking troops who boarded it at sea on May 31, 2010
The U.N. Human Rights Council is considering a report by the three-member commission that investigated the so-called flotilla incident Israel's interception at sea of Gaza-bound vessels carrying pro-Palestinian activists.
(CNSNews.com) - Israel's blockade of a Gaza-bound flotilla last May would have been illegal, even if Osama bin Laden himself had been on the ship full of pro-Palestinian activists, a member of a U.N.-appointed fact-finding mission told the Human Rights Council.
The Geneva-based HRC is considering a report by the three-member commission that investigated the so-called flotilla incident Israel's interception at sea of Gaza-bound vessels, including the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara, on May 31, 2010. The ensuing deadly clashes between Israeli commandos and pro-Palestinian activists left nine activists dead.
Accusing Israel of war crimes, the report stated that the seizure of the ship was illegal, based on the determination that the Israeli blockade was itself illegal under international law.
During an interactive dialogue between the commission and representatives of governments and non-governmental organizations, the jurists were challenged by the non-governmental group U.N. Watch on the issue of the motivation and actions of radicals onboard the Mavi Marmara.
Some members of the controversial Turkish group in control of the boat, IHH, had indicated beforehand a desire for martyrdom, and they included some of the nine people subsequently killed.
Knives, clubs, bars and other items which the Israeli Defense Forces said were recovered from the Mavi Marmara after clashes at sea between Israeli troops and activists trying to sail to the Gaza Strip on May 31, 2010
Israel claimed its soldiers acted in self-defense after being attacked by activists wielding iron bars and other weapons.
U.N. Watch had earlier submitted to the commission a package of more than 40 reports, audio and video clips which it said documented the jihadist intent and actions of the IHH militants on the ship. U.N. Watch representative Leon Saltiel asked the commission Tuesday why the evidence had been disregarded.
Both the commission head, Trinidadian Judge Karl Hudson-Phillips, and panel member Desmond da Silva, a British jurist, indicated in their response that the intentions and statements of those onboard the boat were irrelevant to their conclusions.
The points raised by U.N. Watch were not something which would have altered our conclusions as to the lawfulness or otherwise of the Israeli intervention, Hudson-Phillips said. It would not have made the blockade lawful, and therefore it would not have made the interception lawful. It could not have changed our thinking in any way.
Da Silva then added that Saltiel s comments betrayed an ignorance of the law.
Even if bin Laden himself was on board the Mavi Marmara it wouldn't have made the blockade legal.
Da Silva also mocked the idea that rudimentary weapons in the activists possession would have posed a threat to the Israelis.
Well of course we found a photograph of somebody with a catapult, in the course of making our inquires. No doubt that catapult was there to sink one of the two Israeli submarines that were part of the naval force.
The Human Rights Council meets at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, in the Palais des Nations.
U.N Watch executive director Hillel Neuer said afterwards it was astonishing that the fact-finding commission members acknowledged having disregarded so crucial a matter.
Contrary to the commissioners attempt to downplay this evidence, the truth is that the entire interpretation of the facts hinges on who was the aggressor, and whether Israel's soldiers attacked peaceful activists or instead acted in self-defense in face of a violent mob seeking to lynch them, he said.
Evidence that seven of the nine passengers killed in the clash had previously declared their intent to become martyrs is something the inquiry obviously should have examined, yet failed to do so, Neuer added.
The third member of the commission, Mary Shanti Dairiam of Malaysia, told Tuesday's session that the panel stood by its conclusions that Israel had gravely violated international law, using disproportionate violence against people who were civilians, not combatants. Justice for the victims was now of paramount importance.
Members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) dominated the session of 28 countries that spoke during the session, 20 were members of the Islamic bloc and U.S. ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe was alone in raising concerns about the unbalanced language, tone and conclusions of the fact-finding commission's report.
Israel declined to cooperate with the commission, saying an independent Israeli panel with international observers was investigating the incident. In giving its reasons to withhold cooperation the Israeli foreign ministry also cited what it called the HRC's biased, politicized and extremist approach.
On Wednesday the HRC is due to vote on a resolution, introduced by the OIC, endorsing the findings of the report.
It is one of at least two expected resolutions condemning Israel that will be voted on as the council wraps up its three-week session.
If passed, as is highly likely, they will take to 32 the total number of resolutions critical of Israel passed by the HRC since it was created in 2006.
The other 191 U.N. member-states, together, have accounted for just 31 resolutions, applying to 11 countries (Burma, Sudan, North Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Burundi, Guinea, Honduras and Kyrgyzstan), according to statistics maintained by the Hudson Institute's Eye on the U.N. project.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/75953
Irish Aid Worker Welcomes UN Report On Flotilla Attack
An Irishman who was beaten and threatened at gunpoint by Israeli soldiers following an attack on a flotilla of humanitarian aid ships, has welcomed the publication of a UN report into the tragedy which claimed 9 lives.
The aid workers died when the convoy was intercepted in international waters, by Israeli Defence Force (IDF) commandos, as it made its way towards Gaza on May 31st last. All the deaths occurred on the MV Mavi Marmara after it was stormed and seized by Israeli troops.
Irish activist and former European election candidate Fiachra O' Luain (27) was 2nd mate on board another ship, the US-registered Challenger 1, and witnessed the deadly attack on the Mavi Marmara. Challenger 1 was also stormed by Israeli forces after being pursued for over half an hour. It was later seized and escorted to the Port of Ashdod where the vessel and those on board were detained. The flotilla was trying to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza which has been the subject of an Israeli blockade since 2007.
Mr O' Luain and three other Irish citizens gave evidence to an UN inquiry in London last month. The fact-finding mission was established by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate violations of international law resulting from the interception by Israeli forces of the humanitarian aid flotilla..
The fact-finding mission found that the action of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in intercepting the Mavi Marmara, on the high sea, was %u201Cclearly unlawful.%u201D
Paragraph 206 of the 56-page report refers to the treatment of Mr O' Luain in the days after the attack and states: "In a separate incident, a passenger was physically attacked by around seventeen officers when he refused to sign deportation paper, kicked in the head and threatened at gunpoint. A number of passengers had resolved to resist deportation in order to have the opportunity to demonstrate their innocence in an Israeli court. This was taken as a provocation by the Israelis."
Speaking about the report, Mr O' Luain said: "Those of us who were on the flotilla broadly welcome this comprehensive report. It is the fullest picture of what happened that we have at present. However, Israel did not allow the UN to cross-examine the actual perpetrators of this massacre. We need to know the exact orders that were given and who gave them. Over the course of whatever legal action is taken next, I hope we can begin to hold individual commandos, commanders and politicians responsible for the actions taken."
Mr O' Luain added: "While the bulk of responsibility lies with Israel, we also need to ask our own governments why they did not act more resolutely to protect the flotilla when the threats began. I think that, in particular, the government of United States has to stop sitting on its hands when it comes to Israeli war crimes. Seven years after Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer, 19-year old Furkan Dogan became yet another American murdered by Israel. If the United States fail to protect their own citizens from their "strong ally", then the illusion of them being an "honest-broker" at the negotiation table is exposed."
The UN report also states: The conduct of the Israeli military and other personnel towards the flotilla passengers was not only disproportionate to the occasion but demonstrated levels of totally unnecessary and incredible violence. It betrayed an unacceptable level of brutality. Such conduct cannot be justified or condoned on security or any other grounds. It constituted grave violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law, the report states.
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